India just a blip in Democratic presidential debate

Washington, October 14: India figured just once in the two-and-a-half-hour long Democratic presidential primary debate - and that too negatively - when long-shot candidate Jim Webb said the US must have “highest polluting countries” like Chi and India on board in a climate deal. As the first televised Democratic debate hosted by CNN in Las Vegas Tuesday turned to the climate-change question, the former Virginia setor said unilateral action by the US wouldn’t mean as much when many of the highest polluting tions in the world are Chi and India.

Frontrunner Hillary Clinton jumped on his comments, saying she was part of the White House’s effort to force Chi to make concessions on climate change. She said more should be done, though, at the upcoming Paris conference on climate change.

Her closest rival Bernie Sanders said he agreed with Pope Francis, who called it a “moral issue.” Former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley said he wants to launch a clean energy revolution that elimites US dependence on fossil fuels. “We are not going to solve climate change simply with the laws here,” he said, calling for a more intertiol system. The influential Washington Post, meanwhile, joined issue with what it called “Webb’s grandstanding over India and Chi as the ‘world’s worst polluters,’ home to some of the world’s most smoke-clad cities.”

“It’s simply not fair to pin the blame on these countries, given the size of their populations,” wrote columnist Ishaan Tharoor. (IANS)